I disagree, respectfully. You make very good points though. However, ShaoSheng grew up from day 1 knowing she…
The author addresses all of this. She said exactly the same things you are saying, adding that she deliberately made Shaosheng like this with all her wounds and scares and yes - surviving day to day - because the story is about ShaoSheng's growth. She also said not to expect the tact and experience of a 40 year old prime minister, on a 15 year old girl unexpected thrust into an imperial storm she was not ready for. That's the story lol. If Shaosheng were perfect, there's be no story, or a very short story.
This is such an interesting take!! Do you think this affects your personal opinion on the drama's overall quality?
One of several notes from the author about ShaoSheng and Ming Lan:
"Author's Note:
1. Some readers seem to really 'miss' my old work, *The Story of Minglan*. Actually, I said before that I wanted to write about a concubine's daughter, a legitimate daughter, a princess who is a favored daughter of heaven (but she definitely won't have an easy time, for example, she'll lose her country or something), and a pitiful girl from a humble background (here there will definitely be a golden finger). I won't write about things I've already written, otherwise it'll be too boring.
Minglan is a concubine's daughter. Before she transmigrated, she already had a complete personality, and her family and work were normal and warm. She was unlucky enough to transmigrate to a place with strict rules and etiquette. In modern times, she would be happy and have a smooth life.
Shao Shang has a stubborn and even flawed personality. Even in modern times, she still encounters problems such as emotional difficulties. Therefore, although she is the legitimate daughter and no one in the family can rival her (no matter how biased her mother is), she is still full of troubles and everything goes wrong.
The characters, historical settings, and problems faced on both sides are different, so naturally the writing styles are different. "
This is such an interesting take!! Do you think this affects your personal opinion on the drama's overall quality?
Ming Lan (another love of mine too ❤️) grew up in a large family, loved, fed, taken care of. She knows how a family interacts, it's messy, crude, mean and even weird but they try to stick together and understand each other. She was never abused and starved like ShaoSheng.
They come from two different places in life. So shouldn't be understood from the same place.
I'm rewatching this now, and my eyes have FULLY opened. Shaoshang is such a huge liability. She only ever cares…
I disagree, respectfully. You make very good points though. However, ShaoSheng grew up from day 1 knowing she had to fight for everything. Food, clothing, survival. Her wins are immediate because she's focused on survival.
The psychology of her character stays true to her life and what she lived through. The author / writers made her do everything consistently that a person with her psychology should do, say, react, think or not think.
You can't undo 15 years of trauma in a few months. You can't trust people you've never seen before, and who criticized, punished, ignored you the first moment you met - especially when you were currently sick, and had been through a couple survival incidents just before.
She's a 15 year old girl and the time between when her parents arrived and she locked herself in the palace was only 1 year. 1 year they didn't treat her well or try to fix her survival trauma. Or even acknowledge what it (and they) did to her.
Her father and brothers are no better than her mother. They stand by while her mother abused her physically and emotionally. Their care is retroactive. For a person who hoped someone would love her and be kind to her, they showed her from the very first that no one chooses her. That she must suffer and they could put a bandaid after.
It's not easy for a 15 year old girl who grew up fighting for scraps to see 3 healthy, happy, well educated brothers with no trauma. Her twin is a direct reminder of what her life could have been like if her parents hadn't abandoned her.
Asking a girl with this like of trauma, thinking, life lessons etc to "do thing to care for her family's future" is impossible. She can't care much for them. They were never there and when they were there each of them was abusive in their own way. She learned that even with them there, she still had to fight for herself, and fight even harder. She can't care about their future because all she knows is they have each other to protect their future busy she has nothing and no one. She can't care for their safety because they showed her their safety is their top priority but not hers and she has no part in their group. She can't take care of them like you want her to because she is not a whole person who even understood what a family was.
When her mother hit her, you or I or her brothers can see that as a mother's care. We have that foundation. Shao Shang never had that foundation and never learnt it. She just sees more abuse because that is her foundation.
This even extends to her tell Ling Buyi "I didn't think that far ahead". She thinks about surviving another day. The next day will be another fight. That's her psychology and everything she does comes from that place until after she used the 5 years in the palace to heal herself.
Everything 15-16 year old her does is to survive. Even Ling Buyi, even the Empress, everyone she connects to is with a desperate hope of survival, hoping someone would love her and make a place for her.
I just finished this one and man am I glad it's over. But I would still rate it 8.5/10 overall, hear me out. After…
I liked that she rejected him. Dude didn't deserve her love. She wandered for 800 years because of him and his choice of choosing himself over giving her a chance at freedom. That's not easy to forgive. She should have married someone else for all eternity. I actually don't like that she gave in in the end lol.
if anything, I think he admires her right now? but his character in the novel did carry a torch for ye li.
Hopefully he's like the butcher squad guy from POJ and keeps his torch to himself while being a loyal and devoted friend. I love genuine male-female pairings. Relationships don't always have to be romantic.
Btw, I don’t recall it was being shown, what’s the backstory of FL’s helper captain guy? Is he also a graduate…
He was on LiShan mountain, but must have left before all the stuff happened 8 years ago. FL sent him to be the guard of the Ye family 3 years ago. I guess he follows FL because she's now kind of the leader of LiShan? And he also wants revenge for his fallen brothers. I love his character. Such a good friend.
I have beef with Mo Li: I'm watching faster than the episodes are coming out! *cries* This drama is too good! So so good! Once again I fell in love with Cheng Lei!
Aside from the names and the brief glimpse of her taking back her dowry, nothing is similar to the novel, which is a good thing. The ML is more palatable, they meet from ep 1, and it's not draggy like the novel. Good stuff so far. This seems to be a year of good historical dramas. Yay!
Just one thing, not about the drama... I was looking for further recs and saw that the recs list is padded with irrelevant and unreleased dramas. Forgive me - as a member since 2015 (and a lurker for years before that), I've not visited MDL for a while until May this year, but aren't you supposed to recommend shows you have watched already and verified that they have something in common with the drama on whose page you are recommending? Almost every single one of the recommended dramas on A Splendid Match's page are irrelevant, making it impossible to find actual recommendations. Whoever is doing it, please stop.
I'm about 20 min into ep 36 and XQ wasn't going to say anything but YY's mentor torture that guy that was always…
No excuse! He should have died right there with dignity. Instead, he caused unnecessary trouble and ruined ML and FL's reputations with no actual follow-up on that, before dying. I guess they wanted to show again that he always chooses himself over the welfare of people around him.
Poor IU, people saying she can't act should go watch her other dramas. This script makes HuiJu a 2 dimensional character and IU is playing it perfectly, that's where all the criticism is coming from. IT'S THE LACKLUSTER SCRIPT! Even BWS's character pales in contrast to the PM and the Queen Mother. Those villain characters get a range of emotions in the script, allowing the characters and the actors to shine. The Main Leads however are literally 2D characters with about 5 emotions between them. Poor IU and BWS, I bet they thought the script was better.
But at least they'd all still get their money's worth I guess, because we're watching for the stellar actors at this point, and we're so close to the end so why stop now. But I'd not touch another Disney+ kdrama ever again, no matter who is acting in it.
By the way, if you want entertainment and fun, try My Royal Nemesis.
"Author's Note:
1. Some readers seem to really 'miss' my old work, *The Story of Minglan*. Actually, I said before that I wanted to write about a concubine's daughter, a legitimate daughter, a princess who is a favored daughter of heaven (but she definitely won't have an easy time, for example, she'll lose her country or something), and a pitiful girl from a humble background (here there will definitely be a golden finger). I won't write about things I've already written, otherwise it'll be too boring.
Minglan is a concubine's daughter. Before she transmigrated, she already had a complete personality, and her family and work were normal and warm. She was unlucky enough to transmigrate to a place with strict rules and etiquette. In modern times, she would be happy and have a smooth life.
Shao Shang has a stubborn and even flawed personality. Even in modern times, she still encounters problems such as emotional difficulties. Therefore, although she is the legitimate daughter and no one in the family can rival her (no matter how biased her mother is), she is still full of troubles and everything goes wrong.
The characters, historical settings, and problems faced on both sides are different, so naturally the writing styles are different. "
They come from two different places in life. So shouldn't be understood from the same place.
The psychology of her character stays true to her life and what she lived through. The author / writers made her do everything consistently that a person with her psychology should do, say, react, think or not think.
You can't undo 15 years of trauma in a few months. You can't trust people you've never seen before, and who criticized, punished, ignored you the first moment you met - especially when you were currently sick, and had been through a couple survival incidents just before.
She's a 15 year old girl and the time between when her parents arrived and she locked herself in the palace was only 1 year. 1 year they didn't treat her well or try to fix her survival trauma. Or even acknowledge what it (and they) did to her.
Her father and brothers are no better than her mother. They stand by while her mother abused her physically and emotionally. Their care is retroactive. For a person who hoped someone would love her and be kind to her, they showed her from the very first that no one chooses her. That she must suffer and they could put a bandaid after.
It's not easy for a 15 year old girl who grew up fighting for scraps to see 3 healthy, happy, well educated brothers with no trauma. Her twin is a direct reminder of what her life could have been like if her parents hadn't abandoned her.
Asking a girl with this like of trauma, thinking, life lessons etc to "do thing to care for her family's future" is impossible. She can't care much for them. They were never there and when they were there each of them was abusive in their own way. She learned that even with them there, she still had to fight for herself, and fight even harder. She can't care about their future because all she knows is they have each other to protect their future busy she has nothing and no one. She can't care for their safety because they showed her their safety is their top priority but not hers and she has no part in their group. She can't take care of them like you want her to because she is not a whole person who even understood what a family was.
When her mother hit her, you or I or her brothers can see that as a mother's care. We have that foundation. Shao Shang never had that foundation and never learnt it. She just sees more abuse because that is her foundation.
This even extends to her tell Ling Buyi "I didn't think that far ahead". She thinks about surviving another day. The next day will be another fight. That's her psychology and everything she does comes from that place until after she used the 5 years in the palace to heal herself.
Everything 15-16 year old her does is to survive. Even Ling Buyi, even the Empress, everyone she connects to is with a desperate hope of survival, hoping someone would love her and make a place for her.
My guess is that 8 years ago, he was the one who buried the fallen disciples.
But at least they'd all still get their money's worth I guess, because we're watching for the stellar actors at this point, and we're so close to the end so why stop now. But I'd not touch another Disney+ kdrama ever again, no matter who is acting in it.
By the way, if you want entertainment and fun, try My Royal Nemesis.